Dissidents

Prominent dissident Hu Jua believes that the Chinese government "is repressing dissidents and activists under the name of the Olympics. At the same time, it is trying to prove the legality and validity of its rule through the Olympics."

Chinese politicians like to talk about human rights. But how can you take them seriously when activists are imprisoned on trumped-up charges and often tortured?

Take, for example:

Hada. Sentenced to 10 years for peacefully promoting the cultural, social and political rights of the Mongols. (See Inner Mongolia page.) He has been repeatedly subjected to shackleboarding: he is chained overnight to a metal board with handcuffs at each end. (www.free-hada-now.org)

Huang Jinqiu. Serving a 12-year sentence for subversion. What really upsets the authorities is that he publishes essays for Boxun.com. He announced on the website that he was planning to establish a rival political party.

Shuang Shuying. The 78-year old was sentenced to two years in prison. Her crime? She protested her eviction from her home to make room for the Olympic Games. She suffers from diabetes and high-blood pressure; her family is not allowed to visit. Shuang has gone blind while serving her sentence, and she can barely hear.

Chen Xiaoming. This legal-rights promoter fought forced evictions and died shortly after being released from prison; reports reveal that he was tortured in detention.

Chen Guangcheng. Blind peasant activist, imprisoned for more than four years for campaigning against late-term abortions and sterilization programs. He has been severely beaten by inmates on the orders of prison guards.

Ye Guozhu. Serving a four-year sentence for campaigning against evictions to make way for Olympic building. He has been beaten and placed in solitary confinement.

Shi Tao. Poet and journalist serving a 10-year sentence for sending an email from his Yahoo account. The email was a reprint of one from the authorities. It warned that the return of some dissidents on the 15th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre would be a destabilising influence.

Yang Chunlin. Arrested in September and held incommunicado, he supported legal action on behalf of farmers whose land had been confiscated.

Hu Jia has been in jail since December and his wife Zeng Jinyan and baby are under house arrest. On April 2 he was sentenced to 3-1/2 years in prison for "inciting subversion of state power and the socialist system". He has long campaigned for the environment, religious freedom and for the rights of people with HIV and Aids. Their blog publicises human-rights, and he took part, via Webcam, in a European Union parliamentary hearing in November in Brussels about abuses in China.

Yang Tongyan is serving a 12-year sentence for writing in support of political and democratic change in China. He has already served a 10-year sentence for criticizing the crackdown on the 1989 pro-democracy movement.

Wu Lihong. Arrested for leading a campaign to clean up the Taihu Lake, which is now so polluted that water supplies had to be cut to two million people in the spring of 2007.

Zhao Yan. New York Times Chinese researcher sentenced to three years for factually reporting that the former president and Communist Party chief was resigning.

Bu Dongwei. Sentenced to 2-1/2 yeras Re-education through Labor in connections with his activities with the Falun Gong spiritual movement, which is banned in China. Re-education through Labor is a form of punitive administrative punishment imposed without charge, trial or judicial review.

Bao Tong. Former senior Communist Party official now under house arrest because he criticized party leadership.